Unchecked Barack Obama Is Having Severe Impacts On Our Environment

While announcing new fuel efficiency standards for cars and light trucks on Tuesday, President Barack Obama said “unchecked” carbon pollution prior to his administration’s efforts to raise fuel economy standards “was having severe impacts on our weather.”

“Carbon pollution was going unchecked, which was having severe impacts on our weather,” Obama said in a speech at a Safeway distribution center in Upper Marlboro, MD.

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The new goal: doubling the distance cars and light trucks can travel before needing to refuel.

“We’re gonna double the distance our cars and light trucks can go on a gallon of gas by 2025. We’re gonna double it, and that means – that’s big news – because what it means is you got to fill up every two weeks instead of every week, and that saves the typical family more than $8,000 at the pump over time,” Obama said.

The climate change claims are insane. Speaking of impacts on our weather is pure pretense. Our weather has been quite mild as far as storms go. The only exception is this exceptionally cold winter that we have to endure.

But the goal of “doubling the distance cars and light trucks can travel before needing to refuel”?

Don’t you think automakers already have plenty of reason to try to sell a vehicle that can go farther on less fuel? If it can really be doubled, why haven’t companies done it already?

One way of getting more mileage out of cars is to make them weigh a lot less. That isn’t safe.

Obama is making these same requirements for the trucking industry. Jillian Kay Melchior writes at the National Review blog,

Fuel is one of the most costly inputs for the trucking industry, so before any regulation at all, the private sector had made extensive efforts to cut down on fuel usage.

“There are no reasons for these standards,” says Daniel Simmons, director of regulatory affairs for the Institute for Energy Research. “[Trucking businesses] already spend a lot of money figuring out how to be efficient. They know where their trucks are, how fast they’re going in real time, how efficient their trucks are, and what they can do to improve efficiency much better than the federal government does.”

But Barack Obama is insisting his administration knows how to improve their technology.

There are ways to make fleets more fuel efficient, but they’re expensive, and unless the subsequent fuel savings cover the upfront cost, trucking companies are likely to raise prices, which will eventually affect the cost of the goods they transport.

More worrisome, though, are the potential safety risks of the efficiency innovations. Trucks can reduce their fuel consumption by using lighter tires, but that can also raise the risk of blowouts. Likewise, lower fairings, to reduce the amount of space between the trailer and the road can improve the aerodynamics of the trucks, reducing fuel consumption – but they can also accumulate sleet, and in extreme weather, they can result in flying ice chunks that jeopardize passenger cars.

“We are embarking on a large experiment with these heavy-duty trucks and how you can make them more fuel-efficient,” Simmons says, but “[trucking companies] will be relying on newer technologies instead of time-tested technologies that have proven safe for decades. There could be safety problems, but the point is, we won’t know until they’re tested in the real world.”

So more expensive goods and more dangerous trucks seem to be the likely result of Obama’s meddling.